Thailand

Man arrested trying to smuggle 28 million baht in gold across Burmese border

Published

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 16:34

PHOTO: ThaiGoldStore.com

A Thai man is under arrest after police say he allegedly was caught smuggling a whopping 28 million baht worth of gold bars across the Burmese border. The man, identified only as 37 year old “Chart” was arrested after being searched at a checkpoint in Sanghklaburi district in Kanchanaburi province last night.

Police say they were tipped off and went to search the man’s Toyota pickup truck, finding a bag that held 18 gold bars, with each weighing 1 kilogram. The driver of the truck is a native of tambon Nong Lu and told the police that a woman named Mayo, owned a gold shop across the border in the Phaya Tongsu township. He says she hired him to buy gold bars from a shop in Bangkok’s Chinatown.

Mayo allegedly told the driver to hang the gold over to a Burmese smuggler who was waiting by the Three Pagodas Pass, a popular border crossing from Thailand’s west into Myanmar. The driver says this wasn’t his first time in helping someone smuggle gold. He admitted to doing the same run 2 times before. Police say the first time was on March 3, as he transported 4 gold bars, estimated to be worth around 6.4 million baht. The second time was last Friday, as he said he transported 5 bars that were worth an estimated 7.5 million baht.

Police also caught 13 illegal Burmese migrants who were seeking jobs in Thailand, after locals tipped them off when they saw the migrants wading in a border river. Those migrants were allegedly joining other relatives who were already working in Bangkok. Police say they arrested the migrants and checked their temperatures with no one displaying a fever at the time of the testing.

The migrants were only part of about 102 people detained at the police station as officials say they are seeing more and more everyday try to cross as a result of the military coup in Myanmar that took place February 1.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post

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6 Comments

ipfunnyjohns

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 5:11 pm

A man trying to move “his” wealth physically is illegal? Interesting. I wonder how govt plan to the crypto. They gonna interrogate everyone for their private keys? That’s impossible.

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HermannTheGerman

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 7:22 pm

Yes officer, I am guilty, please book me to prison.

Oh by the way, I forgot to mention, I was doing this 10 times already. Here are some receipts of the gold I smuggled each time. I like to keep some records.

Here is also a list of all my business partners with pictures and addresses. Anything else I can help you with? No? Okay, nice, can I go to prison now for 20 years? Okay thank you!

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paul

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 7:37 pm

to hang the gold over

no proof reader? lol

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Cryptos

Wednesday, March 10, 2021 at 10:57 pm

We should ban gold!

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joe molinario

Thursday, March 11, 2021 at 4:03 am

Approx. 1 billion bath in gold is monthly smuggled into Thailand, across borders, possibly some of it in diplomatic pouches or in ladys underwear lol

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toby andrews

Thursday, March 11, 2021 at 9:32 am

I have just read that all that is needed to export gold is an export license.
Therefore they were just dodging the cost of the export license – whatever that is . . .

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Ann Carter

Ann Carter is an award-winning journalist from the United States with over 12 years experience in print and broadcast news. Her work has been featured in America, China and Thailand as she has worked internationally at major news stations as a writer and producer. Carter graduated from the Walter Williams Missouri School of Journalism in the USA.

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